Housing, Service Dogs, and the Cost of Waiting
People often tell me that housing is different from restaurants or stores.
“If a landlord discriminates against someone with a service dog,” they say, “there are laws that protect you.”
They’re right.
There are.
But my daughter’s experience taught me another question we don’t ask often enough.
What happens while you’re waiting for those protections to work?
After I completed my training at the Assistance Dog Institute, I moved to Michigan to begin building Service Dogs International.
My daughter, Stefanie, stayed in California, where she had been attending college.
She had her service dog, Appie.
Like so many young adults, she was trying to build an independent life.
She found a place to live and paid the landlord a month-and-a-half security deposit.
Then everything changed.
The housing arrangement fell apart.
The landlord kept the money, treating it as a non-refundable deposit.
Whether that decision was legally correct wasn’t the issue she faced that day.
The immediate reality was much simpler.
She had lost the money she needed to find another place to live.
She didn’t have enough money for groceries.
She didn’t have enough money to feed Appie.
Eventually, she was sleeping in her car behind a friend’s house with her service dog.
At the time, I didn’t know how desperate things had become.
Stefanie struggled with prescription drug addiction after being prescribed narcotics for fibromyalgia, and she often tried to shield me from how difficult her life had become.
Looking back, I’ve often wondered how much of her despair came from feeling that every door had closed.
Housing wasn’t simply about having an address.
It represented stability.
Safety.
A place where she and Appie could begin to rebuild.
Instead, she felt trapped.
What the Law Says
Federal fair housing laws prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities, including many people who rely on service animals or other disability-related assistance animals.
If someone believes they have experienced housing discrimination, they can file a complaint with the appropriate fair housing agency or pursue other legal remedies, depending on the circumstances.
My Experience
During the years I directed Service Dogs International, I contacted fair housing agencies many times on behalf of clients.
In my experience, the people handling those complaints genuinely wanted to help.
In fact, they were among the most responsive government officials I worked with.
The challenge wasn’t a lack of concern.
The challenge was time.
Investigations require facts.
Landlords have the opportunity to respond.
Evidence has to be gathered.
That process protects everyone’s rights.
But housing doesn’t wait.
If a landlord refuses to let someone move in, the apartment may already be rented to someone else before the complaint is resolved.
If the landlord is holding the person’s security deposit, they may not have enough money to secure another apartment.
For someone with financial resources, a civil lawsuit may eventually provide a remedy.
For someone living paycheck to paycheck, the crisis begins long before the legal process ends.
Questions to Think About
What should happen when a person with a disability cannot move into housing they believed they had secured?
If the apartment is already gone and the deposit is tied up in a dispute, what practical options exist?
How can the system protect both due process and people facing an immediate housing crisis?
Those aren’t easy questions.
But they’re questions worth asking.
